The Distinction between Hatred and Indifference
by do i need a pen name
Summary: James, in a sudden moment of brilliance, sets out to determine whether or not Lily cares about him-whether it be out of love or hatred...COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

**disclaimer-How dare any of you accuse me of lying and saying that I really am J.K. and i really do own Harry Potter! The nerve of you...**

**The Distinction Between Hatred and Indifference  
**

**Chapter One**

James Potter really was a rational person.

It didn't matter that he was one of Hogwarts' finest pranksters. It didn't matter that he rarely did homework. It didn't matter that one of the sole reasons he lived was to play Quidditch. It didn't matter that he had spent nearly six years of his life trying to get a certain red-haired girl to go out it him.

None of that mattered, because James Potter was very sensible, and he knew it. At least, that was what he discovered about himself at the end of his sixth year at Hogwarts, on the night before everyone was to go home for the summer holiday.

And how, might you ask, did he discover this about himself? It's very simple, really. James chose to listen when his best friend, Sirius, asked their other friend, Remus, why he hated Quidditch, which, as you might recall, was one of James' favorite things in life.

"I don't hate Quidditch," Remus replied without looking up from the book he was reading, "I'm just indifferent about it. It's not that I _hate_ Quidditch, it's that I don't _care_ about Quidditch. If I hated the sport, it would be showing some feeling for it."

And that, is when James came to the sudden realization that there might still be some hope. Hope that Lily Evans would one day go out with him. That night James could hardly sleep as a result of this revelation.

The morning everyone was to leave Hogwarts dawned bright and clear, a sure sign to James that things were going to turn out well. He was jumpy with anticipation all throughout breakfast, and when his friends asked him what was wrong he merely replied that he couldn't wait to go home.

It was when all of the students were boarding the train that he finally put his plan into action. Scanning the crowd for a glimpse of red, a grin lit up James' face when he finally found Lily about to get on the train.

"Lily!" James called, running to reach her.

With a deep sigh, Lily turned around, her hand already inching towards her pocket as if in anticipation of needing her wand to hex James so that he would leave her alone.

"What do you want, Potter?" She asked suspiciously. Whenever James talked to her it was with the intention of asking her out. His not doing so by this time alerted her that something strange was about to occur.

"I need to talk to you." James said breathlessly. He grabbed her arm and pulled her onto the train. "Come with me."

He led Lily down a corridor of compartments full of their classmates until at last he found an empty one for them to talk in. Once Lily was seated, James began pacing up and down in front of her. After about a minute of this he stopped directly in front of her and looked her straight in the eye.

"I know this is going to sound like a very strange question," James began, "But I have to know_: Do you hate me?_"

Lily couldn't help herself, she just stared at James, not even opening her mouth to reply.

"Well?" James prompted impatiently. "Do you hate me or not?"

"Er…yes?" Lily replied slowly.

"Yes what?"

"Yes, I…hate you, Potter." Lily said, still with the expression on her face that quite plainly said she thought James had finally lost it. Not that she hadn't ever thought that before, of course.

At this pronouncement, a large grin broke out on James' face. Indeed, it was the largest-and by far the happiest-grin Lily had ever seen on him.

"Are you alright, Potter?" Lily asked tentatively, unsure as to whether or not she really wanted to know the answer to that question.

"You _hate_ me." James said happily. He grinned again. "Well, I should be going, Lily. Have a wonderful summer."

And with that final word, James turned and left Lily sitting in the compartment questioning her sanity-and his for that matter.

* * *

Back in the compartment James was sharing with his three friends, James sat down with the same happy grin still plastered on his face.

"Where have you been?" Sirius demanded. "You disappeared when we got off the carriages. We almost went up to the driver to tell him not to leave because we thought something had happened to you."

"I was with Lily." James said simply.

"With Lily." Sirius repeated dubiously. "But you don't look as if you've just come from a fight for your life."

James nodded, and Remus looked up from his newspaper questioningly.

"What were you doing with Lily?" He asked, unknowingly using the same tone Lily had just used with James moments before. It was a tone that said Remus wasn't sure whether he really wanted to know the answer to the question he had just asked or not.

"Talking."

"About…?"

James sighed contentedly. "Lily hates me."

At this, all three of his friends looked at him with concern.

"If she hates you, then why are you so…_happy_?" Peter asked slowly.

"Because she _hates_ me." James replied as if it were obvious.

"Is this a…good thing?" Remus questioned.

"He obviously thinks so." Sirius muttered under his breath.

"I do." James said, the happy expression never leaving his face.

"But _why_?" Remus asked, looking utterly confused. "I don't understand a word you're saying."

James took a deep breath before speaking again.

"I was just with Lily." He said slowly. "Lily Evans; I'm sure you know her. Anyway, I asked her whether or not she hated me-and don't worry Moony, I was very polite." He paused, his grin growing larger. "And she said yes!"

"Would you care to explain why this is a cause for celebration?" Remus asked. "I thought your goal was to get her to like you so that she would go out with you…or have you changed tactics?"

"You could say that." James said with a nod. "It's like this: do you remember what you and Padfoot were talking about last night in the common room?"

"We were talking about Moony hating Quidditch." Sirius replied, looking at his best friend strangely. "What does that have to do with you getting Lily to go out with you?"

"I'm getting there." James insisted. "You see, you, Padfoot, wanted to know why Moony hates Quidditch so much. And Moony told you that he doesn't hate quidditch. He's just indifferent about it; he doesn't care. Moony said that if he were to hate Quidditch, it would be showing some sort of feeling for it…but Moony doesn't have any feelings for Quidditch; _he doesn't care_."

"O-_kay_." Remus said slowly. "And this relates to you and Lily…how?"

"She said she hates me." James repeated for the thousandth time. "She's not indifferent, like Moony and Quidditch."

"Oh…" Sirius said suddenly, realization dawning on his face. "I get it now. Lily cares enough about you to hate you." His brow furrowed in confusion. "This helps…how?"

"Since Lily already cares about me, I just need to get her to care about me…differently." He frowned now. "The problem is, I don't know how." He turned to Remus and with a desperate plea in his voice said, "Moony, I need help!"

With a sigh, Remus lowered his newspaper, any hope of finishing reading it had been completely obliterated upon James' entry into the compartment, anyway.

"Do you know why Lily hates you so much?" Remus began.

"Er…no." James said slowly.

"You make fun of people, and hex them for the fun of it." Remus looked at James pointedly. "That will need to stop. Now that we've figured that out, can you think of anything else you could do so you won't bother Lily so much?"

James was silent for a moment.

"That'd be another no." He finally said. Remus rolled his eyes.

"Lose the snitch." Remus said. "Don't make your hair look messier than it already is, and most importantly-which I was getting to before-be _nice_ to people. All people."

"Even the Slytherins?"

Remus nodded.

"Good luck with that one." Sirius muttered.

"Even Snape?"

"That's another thing." Remus responded. "Snape was Lily's best friend for years. Making fun of him, and hexing him, and whatever else you did to him was _not_ the best plan of action for getting Lily to go out with you."

"Why does Moony always make sense when he's telling us off?" Sirius asked no one in particular. "I can never understand a word he's saying when we're doing homework, but when we do something wrong…_oh no_…he makes perfect sense _then_!"

"Anything else?" James asked Remus, ignoring his best friend.

Remus nodded.

"If you want Lily to go out with you," He began, "Don't ask her out every single time you see her."

"I don't understand." James said, looking confused. "How will I get her to go out with me if I can't _ask_ her to go out with me? Sirius was right! You never make sense when you're trying to help us."

Remus just rolled his eyes.

"It annoys Lily when you bother her every second of the day to go on a date with you." Remus said slowly. "That's part of the reason why she hates you so much. If you don't bother her, she won't hate you."

"Oh…" James said slowly. "Now _that_ makes sense."

"Of course it does." Sirius replied as he dug around in his trunk, looking for something before producing a deck of cards. "So, who's up for a game of Exploding Snap?"

**a/n-depending on how studious i wish to be in the next week and a half, th enext chapter might get posted pretty soon. if anyone reads any of my other stories, I have a final and an AP test next week(thankfully in the same subject) but that means I won't be updating anything until about next week thursday at the earliest. and before you get mad and try to kill me, _please _try to remember that if i'm dead, I can't update anything. that's all. :) hope you liked the first chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer-See Chapter One. If you're too lazy to do that, then too bad! That means you're too lazy to sue me, too, for not saying this isn't mine, which it isn't...so what's really the point of telling you to go back to Chapter One, if I've just said what I wanted you to read there right here? Long and confusing sentence, huh?**

**Chapter Two**

James heaved a great sigh as he collapsed onto the seat in the Head's compartment on the Hogwarts Express. He had spent the whole summer preparing for this year, his last at Hogwarts. And, finally, the day had arrived. Today, was the day he would put into action a plan that would hopefully help him to win over Lily Evans once and for all.

Just then, the door to the compartment opened, and none other than Lily Evans walked into the compartment. James unconsciously sat up straighter. The movement attracted Lily's attention, and she looked up from the piece of paper she had been studying. A confused expression appeared on her face.

"Do I have the right compartment?" She asked him. "This _is _the Head's compartment, isn't it?"

James nodded eagerly. "Yep, it is."

At this, Lily looked even more confused. "Then…what are you doing here?"

"Well, why are you here?" James replied, answering her question with one of his own.

"I am the Head Girl." Lily said. "I'm supposed to be here. I have to meet the Head Boy."

"Then look no further: I'm Head Boy." James said. Then he frowned. "Did I _really_ just say that?"

"You're the Head Boy?" Lily repeated disbelievingly.

"Well, that's what I said, isn't it?" James questioned.

"Dumbledore is off his rocker." Lily said faintly, sitting down on the seat across from James with a _thump_. "Who in their right mind would make _you_ the Head Boy?"

"You know, I've been trying to figure that out for a while now, too." James told her. Then he changed the subject, "So, the letter I got said we were in charge of the Prefect's meeting on the train. I'm new at this whole thing, so I thought I'd just follow your leadership for now—if that's alright with you, that is."

An alarmed expression replaced the confused one on Lily's face now. "Who are you and what have you done with the real James Potter?"

Now it was James' turn to look at Lily strangely. "Why don't you think I am who I am?"

"Well, first of all," Lily began, perfectly understanding James' question, "If you really are James Potter, then why haven't you asked me out yet?"

"Did you _want_ me to ask you out?" James asked her, looking confused as he recalled what Remus had told him the last time he had been on this train.

"No!" Lily said quickly. A bit too quickly.

"OK, then." James said. "What else leads you to believe that I am not James Potter?"

"You're talking like Remus." Lily stated.

"Well don't _your_ friends' habits wear off on _you_?" James demanded. "And I'm really not talking any differently than I normally do."

"You don't talk like that around _me_." Lily muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." She said swiftly. Lily looked down at her watch. "The Prefects will all be getting here soon. I'll run the meeting—like you wanted." She paused here, a look of indecision upon her face, as if she wanted to say something but wasn't sure if she should. After a second she shook her head as if to clear it, then looked directly at James. "I'm sure you'll get the hang of everything in no time, though."

"Wow…" James said softly, almost in a dream-like tone. "That's probably the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

Lily bit her lip to keep from smiling. "Yes, I suppose it is."

No more could be said, however, because there was a knock at the door then; the Prefects had arrived.

* * *

"Hello, Lily." James said, sitting down next to her on the couch in the Common Room later that evening. "I can call you 'Lily' right? Because I figured it would help give everyone else a good example if we treated each other civilly, and all that."

Lily looked at him strangely. "OK, seriously, _why_ are you acting like Remus?"

"Huh?" James replied confusedly. "Wait…so now you think I'm acting like Remus _and _Sirius? I'm just acting like _me_."

"When did I say anything about Sirius?" Lily questioned. "You know what, why don't we just forget I just said anything at all? Let's go back to the beginning of this conversation. Pretend you just sat down here and I haven't said anything yet…Hello James, I agree with you. We should be an example for everyone else. I don't mind if you call me by my name."

"And you thought I was acting weird." James muttered.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Lily got back to the book she had been reading before James had come over, and James stared thoughtfully in to the fire.

"Lily," James said suddenly, in a serious tone, "There's something I need to ask you."

"What?" Lily asked, suddenly wary as she put her book back down again. She knew it had been too good to last.

"Do you hate me?"

"Why do want to know?" Lily asked after a moment of contemplative silence, trying to hide her shock that _that_ was the question he had wanted to ask her. In the back of her mind, she recalled James asking her that question before, at the end of the previous year.

James shrugged. "I just do. You see, Sirius is doing a poll on who at Hogwarts likes me and who doesn't. So far, for the no's, he's got all of Slytherin House."

Lily opened her mouth to say something but no sound came out.

"Just kidding." James said swiftly, taking in her expression. "I was just thinking about how you swore to 'hate me for all of eternity'…and I really do think that you shouldn't use the excuse of trying to be a good role model for everyone else to deny whatever you might feel about me. So, you still hate me, right?"

Instead of answering, Lily just looked at James, an unreadable expression upon her face.

"Do you want me to hate you?" Lily finally said.

"I don't care." James said, holding up a hand as if to stop her. "Like I said before, I just don't want you denying whatever feelings you might have towards me."

"Yes. I do still hate you, James." Lily said suddenly. It was the way James had worded it. But now she knew for sure, it didn't matter that they were going to be Head's together, it didn't matter that they should be setting a good example for everyone else, Lily still hated James. And she always would.

"Excellent." James said, standing up suddenly and walking away without another word, a huge smile on his face.

Once he was gone, however, Lily didn't go back to reading her book again. Instead her gaze drifted to the fire in front of her, the same fire James had been looking into moments before.

Lily didn't really hate James…OK, well yes, she really did, but that wasn't the point. Actually, it was more like she hated the way he acted. Lily had seen James quite civilly towards other people on rare occasions, and she really liked the person he was then. If only he would act that way around her…

But wait, he was acting like that around her, wasn't he? In the past twelve hours, James hadn't asked her out once, had he? And he hadn't pulled out that obnoxious snitch either. And, as far as she knew, he hadn't pulled any pranks on anyone…yet. And hadn't Dumbledore made James the Head Boy? Weren't many other, much more qualified, students passed over for the position so that James could get it?

Deep down, Lily really did like James. It might be the deepest level of all, but she did know that, beneath all of the years of stored-up hatred, there was something more. And it was only a matter of time until that something more made itself known.

**a/n-before I say anything else, I just want to thank ****Rider Arya Svit-kona, who has undertaken the task of being my beta for this story. So, moving on, I know it's been a while, not too long really...but kudos to those who tuned back in for more. Hmm...that's something i've never said before and will probably never say again. **

**So, for those of you who like reading Harry Potter, most especially MWPP era (which, ya know, considering that you are right now, I hope you do) go check out the two stories I've co-authored with An-Jelly-Ca. They're both posted under the account SiRiUsLyPiNkAnDgReEn and the links to both are in my profile. Warning: Do not read them if you are in an area where laughter will most likely not be tolerated. **

**So, I hope you liked the chapter, and maybe if I get some more positive feedback I'll update sooner this time! Oh and thanks to all of those who wished me luck on my tests last chapter. I'm hoping they both went well, I don't know yet!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

"I need a better plan," James announced as he entered the dormitory he shared with his three friends.

"Always," Remus muttered from behind the book he was reading. "I should just give up on that."

"Huh?" James said stopping dead in the middle of the floor, a confused expression on his face.

"You always need a better plan," Remus clarified. "No matter how long you spend making up the ones you already have, you always need a better one. And I always give you the same suggestion, and it's the best plan you could possibly have, yet you never go with it."

"If it's the best plan," Sirius began slowly, "then why wouldn't he _use_ it? And what is this plan you speak of, anyway?"

"Stop pranking people!" Remus exclaimed. "That's the best advice I can give you! And yet you never follow it."

"Well that explains it," Sirius said, going back to examining each Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean as he put them into his mouth, occasionally chucking them on the floor if he thought they looked suspicious. "Why would Prongsie—or anyone—want to stop pranking people? It's my favorite pastime!"

"Besides being a lazy bum, you mean," Peter put in.

"Well, _duh_," Sirius said as if it were obvious. Then, "Hey! I'm not a bum!"

"Back to what I was saying before you people all got _so_ off track," James said suddenly, "I need a plan. A new plan; a _better_ plan. And Moony, who ever said anything about pranking people? What does that have to do with the problem I have?"

"It has to do a lot with the problem _I_ have," Sirius said, almost thoughtfully.

"What problem could you _possibly_ have?" Remus asked Sirius as if he were crazy. "And crazy fangirls don't count. Neither do the girls who hate you because you dumped them and/or ditched them on a date. Of course, we've only just arrived at Hogwarts today, so I really don't see how you've already managed to divide the female population so distinctly."

"My problem," Sirius said, speaking over Remus, "Is that I don't have anybody to prank people _with_."

"Hey!" Peter protested, "I prank people with you!"

"What I need," Sirius said, blatantly ignoring Peter, "Is an equal. Someone with a vast expanse of knowledge regarding the delicate art of making other people's lives miserable. Someone who isn't afraid to break and bend the rules much more than occasionally. Someone who has an excuse ready at every turn and is quite gifted at getting out of detentions, yet equally able to receive a great number of such punishments in the hope of creating an unbreakable school record. It's hard to find people like that. And, you know, I used to have someone just like that," He looked pointedly at James here. "But he just had to give up that life of glory in favor of getting some _girl_ to go out with him. Even though he knows it's totally pointless."

"Hey!" James protested. "It isn't totally pointless…well, maybe it is." He conceded after a moment's thought. "But that's why I'm here," He continued earnestly, "I need help thinking up a new plan for Lily to go out with me. The whole being nice and not pranking people and just generally making a huge personality change just really isn't working out for me. It's taking too long."

"James," Remus said sharply, putting his book down to reveal a huge frown upon his face. "It's the first time you've seen Lily in more than two months. Two months, I'd like to point out, which were spent doing a lot more planning than just being _nice_."

"He does have a point, you know," Sirius chimed in. "I, for one, really don't understand how you could forget the multitude of hours we spent in the grueling heat of the old tree house in your backyard."

"Where did you learn all of those words?" Remus demanded, looking baffled. "And how did you manage to use them correctly in that sentence?"

"It was a multitude of hours spent in the grueling heat of the old tree house in James' backyard with only a dictionary to amuse me." Sirius corrected himself. "And it was pure torture!"

"O-_kay_," Remus said slowly, before shaking his head and looking back towards James. "Like I was saying, you've only just gotten back to school—and Lily. You've had what, two conversations with her so far? Three, at the most? You need to give it some time for her to get adjusted to the change, otherwise those long hours in the grueling heat of that stupid tree house were a waste. I, personally, enjoy the nice, cool atmosphere of your bedroom, which you have totally soundproofed, anyway. So what was really the point of going out to that treehouse so that we 'wouldn't be interrupted or overheard?' Let me tell you: no point at all!"

James looked at his friends with an expression of worry upon his face. "You guys really need to learn how to not bottle up all of that anger. You need to let it all out in a timely fashion. It really helps relieve some stress, you know."

"Yeah, and it would also help if we just burned that tree house to the ground," Sirius muttered darkly.

"Ooh…sometimes, I like the way you think," Remus said, an expression upon his face that very clearly stated how _very much_ he liked Sirius' plan.

"You guys are really starting to scare me," James said worriedly, backing slowly towards the doorway. "All I wanted was to know what I should do about getting Lily to finally like me."

"Just give it time," Peter offered as Sirius and Remus began conferring about the best spell to use to start a fire, which made James trip over himself trying to get to the door. "It's the only thing you've got, this far in the game!" He shouted after James as the black-haired boy bolted from the room.

Peter gave a slight shrug once James had disappeared, "Of course, the whole thing is probably pointless, anyway, but have fun with that…"

**a/n-sorry for the long wait. I had internet problems...and then problems with my whole computer...and then I just decided that the whole world was against me, so, in short, I meant to have this up sooner. Again a big thanks to my beta, ****Rider Arya Svit-kona. So, I hope you all liked the chapter, and I'll try to update as soon as possible...maybe...depending on how the world continues to feel about me...please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**disclaimer-Harry Potter does not belong to me, duh! Do I sound like a billionaire?...or whatever it is J.K. is now...**

**Chapter Four**

"It's a plan…a good plan…a _great_ plan…," James muttered to himself as he paced back and forth in front of the portrait hole, which was the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room. He was trying to reassure himself that the plan Remus had helped him come up with was going to be successful. He was so immersed in this, however, that he didn't notice Lily come up behind him.

"What plan?" She asked.

James jumped at the sound of her voice, and turned around, a panicked expression upon his face.

"Lily!" He exclaimed, glancing around frantically, trying to come up with something to say. "What are you doing here?"

Lily just looked at him strangely. "We agreed to meet here to do our patrols," she said slowly. "Don't you remember?"

"Our patrols…," James repeated slowly. "Oh, yeah…now I remember. So," he continued swiftly, trying to draw the conversation away from what he'd been talking to himself about before Lily had shown up. "What are we supposed to be doing on these patrols?"

"Patrolling," Lily replied simply.

"Oh, yeah, I knew that," James said quickly. "Patrolling, of course. What else would we be doing on patrols?"

Lily could only nod, as her mind raced to figure out just _why_ the Headmaster had appointed James Potter, of all people, to be the Head Boy.

"So," James continued speaking. "Are we allowed to talk while we're patrolling?"

"Er…sure…," Lily said slowly, trying to find a hidden meaning behind his words, but failing. "…was there something you wanted to talk about?"

"How was your summer?" James asked brightly.

Lily had no reply for that. Of all the things James could have asked her…of all the things she would have expected him to ask her…. He asked her how her summer was? Now Lily really was starting to wonder why James had been made the Head Boy; he obviously had some type of disorder that made him…say random things? No, maybe he was just a very random person? That _would _fit in with the side of his personality she'd seen for the past six years….

"Hello? Earth to Lily," James waved his hand in front of her face and she blinked, realizing that they had stopped walking, and were still in the Fat Lady's corridor, on top of that.

"Sorry," She said, a slight shake of her head. "You were saying?"

James frowned slightly. "Well, I asked you how your summer was and then you just sort of…stopped. Are you alright?"

"Oh, my summer was just _grea__t_," Lily said with a sarcastic tone, ignoring James' second question and her reaction to his first. "Spending quality time with my sister is _definitely_ one of my most favorite things to do," she continued, as the pair began walking again.

"Why do I have the feeling you're lying?" James asked, looking at Lily with the hint of a grin upon his face.

"Probably because I am," Lily replied, an answering grin stretching across her own face. But almost immediately it was gone. "My sister, Petunia, is jealous of me for being a witch. She's hates me for it; it's tearing my family apart. And it's all my fault," she added in a whisper.

"No it isn't," James said, trying to comfort the girl who now sounded as if she were close to tears. "You can't help what you are, and neither can your sister."

"She moved out so she wouldn't have to see me anymore," Lily said with a shake of her head. "When I went home for Christmas last year, she refused to come home that day, just because she didn't want to see me," she sighed. "Mum and dad tried to distract me from it, but I know that hurt them; it's still hurts them to see their only two children not get along."

James draped an arm comfortingly across Lily's shoulder. "It'll all turn out for the better in the end, just you wait and see."

A small smile graced Lily's lips at this, and a small laugh escaped her lips. With a sight shrug, she slipped out from under James' arm and took a few quick steps so that she was walking in front of him.

"You know," she began. "The summer really did do you some good; you're like a totally different person, now." And as her footsteps again increased in speed, James' slowed down. "I mean, we've been back at school for almost three days, and you have yet to prank or insult a single person. It must be some sort of record."

"I'm not a totally different person," James contradicted in a whisper so soft it was inaudible over his and Lily's combined footsteps. "I'm just being me…."

"Come on," Lily called from down the corridor, when she turned and saw that he wasn't directly behind her anymore. "Get a move on! We've got to get through this whole castle…"

* * *

"… and it was the strangest thing I've ever witnessed," Lily concluded as she conversed in a hushed tone with Remus over their schoolbooks in the library the following afternoon. "I've never seen James Potter show so much…compassion to someone else…to anyone else."

Remus just shrugged. "It's not a side of himself that he usually shows to anyone else," he said slowly. "But he's really trying to prove that he's worthy of the Head Boy badge. To tell you the truth, it was the biggest shock of his life when he received it, this past summer. To say that James wasn't expecting it would be the biggest understatement of the century."

Lily chuckled slightly before she spoke again. "But who is he trying to prove himself to?" she asked slowly, remembering Remus' earlier word choice. "All those years of pranking and disregarding the rules, why stop now? I'm not saying I approved of all that," She added swiftly, noticing the incredulous look Remus was giving her, "It's just a complete turn around for him to be so…law-abiding, now."

Again, Remus shrugged. "I haven't a clue who he's doing all of this for," He replied carefully. He smirked slightly. "I know it isn't Sirius; that's for sure. You should hear him moaning about how he has no one to prank people with now."

Now, Lily laughed. "Maybe he should take a few lessons from James; they would do him a whole world of good."

Remus just shook his head at this. "I'm not sure if anything can help Sirius this far in the game. He's completely obsessed with that whole business of setting an unbeatable record for the number of detentions one person can get in their entire Hogwarts career."

"Don't give up all hope just yet, Moony," A voice said from behind where Remus and Lily were sitting. Both jumped the tiniest of bits and turned around to see James standing there, a slightly bemused expression upon his face.

"How long have you been standing there?" Lily demanded, an undertone of suspicion in her voice.

"Long enough to hear you, Moony, my dear, misguided friend, pointing out all of poor Padfoot's faults," James replied easily. "Why? You haven't been talking about me, have you?"

"Not at all," Remus replied smoothly. "Although, now that you bring up the subject of you, what _are_ you doing in the library, of all places? This is hardly your favorite hangout, is it?"

"I was looking for you, Lily," James replied, turning to his fellow head student. "I've just been speaking to Dumbledore about some of our Head duties."

Lily frowned slightly. "Forget to invite me to the meeting?" she suggested, a clearer hint of a glare present on her face, rather than the grin she had worn just minutes earlier.

"Oh, no," James said swiftly, his tone vehement. "The headmaster stopped me in the…er…corridor, I was just going down to the…er, lake. Anyway, he was telling me that we have to stop by his office sometime in the next couple of weeks to start talking about the Halloween banquet, permanent patrol schedules for the prefects, that kind of stuff…. He asked me to pass that along."

"Oh…," Lily said softly, a bit embarrassed for her blatant overreaction, and not knowing what else to say in response to the message he'd just delivered.

James nodded, a knowing smile creeping onto his face as he did so. "Jeez, Lil, for a second I thought you were going to rip my head off there," he paused, a thoughtful look upon his face now. "Although, you _do_ hate me, so I suppose that's to be expected."

"You suppose correctly," Lily snapped, suddenly standing up and closing the book she had been holding shut. She stuffed that, her quill, parchment, and ink into her bag and stalked out of the library without a further word to either James or Remus.

James just smiled after her happily, and Remus looked at him as if he'd gone crazy.

"I thought the plan was to get on her good side," Remus reminded his friend. "You're supposed to show her the real James Potter; the one who's actually capable of being nice to people. That means being nice to Lily."

"I was being nice to Lily," James said with a wave of his hand. "I just had to make sure she still hates me, that's all. And she clearly does, so mission accomplished."

At this pronouncement Remus groaned. "You aren't still on about that whole thing about there being a difference between hatred and indifference, are you? I always knew there was a good reason I felt the urge to not talk to you when we met, back in first year. Why do you still insist upon making Lily hate you?"

"Because," James explained, as if it were quite obvious, "those who hate me are my friends, and those who love me are my enemies."

Remus looked at his friend incredulously. "Yeah? And how, exactly does that work out?"

"You see," James began, "it's quite simple really. Take you, for insistence. We're friends, aren't we? Well you're always saying how annoying I am and how much you hate me for it. And Sirius hates me because I won't prank people with him, anymore. And Peter…," James trailed off, a slight frown on his face. "Well, actually, Peter hero-worships me…," he shook his head slightly as if to clear it, and refocused on Remus. "The point is, you and Sirius both hate me, but we're still friends, aren't we?"

"What about all of the people who claim to love you?" Remus reminded his friend.

"Easy," James said simply. "I don't _want_ a fan club—although I must admit it is quite nice—therefore, all of the girls in it who 'claim to love me' as you put it, are my enemies."

"What about your parents?" Remus pressed. "Haven't they ever told you that they loved you?"

"Yeah, along with telling me that I had to eat my vegetables or die of a vitamin insufficiency," James relied shrewdly. "How loving is that? They're my enemies, I tell you. Who really wants to eat _vegetables_?"

Remus merely rolled his eyes at this. "Not the point. The point, is that while you have made several successful attempts in making Lily actually like you as a real person, but you've completely cancelled all of that effort out by continuing to make sure she 'hates' you. That wasn't a part of the plan."

"No," James contradicted, a mysterious smile upon his face. "It wasn't a part of _your_ plan. It has everything to do with _my_ plan."

And without a further word, James exited the library, unknowingly tracing the exact path Lily had taken. Remus shook his head once more as he watched his friend go.

His intentions were good, really. All he had wanted to do was help make Lily, his friend, realize that she really was meant for James. And to do that, he had had to help James come up with a plan to get Lily to see the side of James he rarely showed to…well, anyone. And his plan had been good; James had even helped with it, no matter how planning-impaired he claimed to be. And James had made some serious progress with Lily the night before. Remus could only hope that it hadn't all been for naught.

**a/n-i hope you all liked the chapter...er, not sure when I'm gonna update next. I've got other stories...well, one in particular that is feeling a tad neglected as of late, I should probably update that sometime in the coming weeks...Speaking of my other stories, if there's anyong reading this right now who has read my story The Parent Trap please go to my profile and vote on my poll! If you want further...information, i suppose you could say, go to Ch. 25 of The Parent Trap...Thanks again to my beta Rider Arya Svit-kona.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

"How would you feel about helping me out with something?" Remus asked—no, demanded of Sirius, the next day after lunch. Both seventh year's had a free period, and James and Lily were in the headmaster's office talking to Dumbledore, and Peter was had his remedial potions class with Slughorn, so Remus and Sirius were the only two people in the otherwise deserted Gryffindor common room.

"Depends," Sirius said slowly, looking at Remus with a calculating gaze. "What, exactly, did you have in mind? Pranking is my specialty, so if that's what you want, then I'm your guy."

"Why would _I _want to prank someone?" Remus said, looking appalled at the very thought.

"Who doesn't like pranking people?" Sirius asked. "It's quite an enjoyable pastime."

"Yeah, for people who don't mind spending practically all of their time outside of class in detention."

"Ah…yes, my other favorite thing to do other than annoy Slytherins," Sirius said, his eyes faraway as he thought of something that would probably give Remus a heart attack if he actually had to witness it.

"Back to my point," Remus said hurriedly, shivering at the very thought of what Sirius could be imagining right now. "I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I need your help, Sirius."

"That hurts, Moony," Sirius said tragically, placing one hand over his heart. "But what do you need help with? It must be something big, if you're actually asking for help to begin with."

Remus sighed almost sadly at this. "I thought I could handle it before, but I was obviously wrong. I need your help convincing James that the best way for him to get Lily to like him is for him to act normally around her."

Sirius narrowed his eyes. "Would helping you with this plan of yours be considered endorsing that plot for Prongs to stop pranking…anyone?"

"Maybe…," Remus said slowly. "But if you helped James with this, I'm sure he'd be eternally grateful."

"Hmm…Eternal gratitude or the instant satisfaction of destroying everyone else's peace…," Sirius said in mock thoughtfulness, as if he were weighing the pros and cons of each. "I'm gonna have to go with disturbing the peace on that one." He concluded swiftly.

Remus groaned. "Come on, Sirius. I really need your help on this one. You're the only person James will listen to half of the time. I don't think I can do this without you."

"True," Sirius said with a nod. "But what am I going to do with 'eternal gratitude?' It's not something that I can think about for hours on end, again and again, and always get some kind of amusement out of it. What am I going to do with eternal gratitude when I'm…" He shuddered visibly here, "_Old_ and artificially not gray? Absolutely nothing, that's what," He sighed now. "I'm afraid you're going to have to offer me further incentive for help on this one.

"Well…," Remus said slowly, almost forcing the word out and looking as if doing so was causing him great deals of pain. "If you help James get Lily to like him, then maybe, one day, after they're married and they have a kid, they'll choose you to be the godfather, because you were so instrumental in getting them together…"

Sirius' eyes seemed to light up as Remus spoke. "You're a genius, Moony!" He exclaimed. "Now it won't matter if James stops pranking people with me…," He laughed evilly. "I'll poison his kid's mind in retaliation. Oh, Moony, I always knew there was a reason people thought you were smart."

Ignoring that last comment, Remus shook his head sadly as Sirius turned his thoughts to his best friend's future offspring. How Sirius could believe Lily would ever trust him with her future children was beyond Remus…. But that didn't matter in the present moment; Sirius had agreed to help Remus with his plan. Now the real ordeal was about to being…but how to get James to realize what he was unwilling to see for himself?

* * *

"Ah, my dear Prongs…," Sirius said in an elegant-sounding voice, sidling up to his friend later that evening in the Great Hall at dinnertime. The effect was ruined however, by the manner in which Sirius plopped down beside James on the bench. "How, do tell, are you enjoying this delicious-looking meal on this fine September night?"

James turned to glance at his friend, soup spoon half-way to his mouth. "Why would you make a Polyjuice potion in order to appear to be Padfoot, Moony?"

"Why ever would you think I would do such a thing in order to appear to be someone I, quite frankly, am not?" Sirius questioned.

"Because, _quite frankly_, you're acting more like Moony than like yourself, Pad," James replied, still holding his spoon in midair.

"Are you trying to imply something about me?" Sirius demanded.

"Like what?"

"Like…that only Remus can act civilized?" Sirius offered, at a loss for anything else to say.

"Gee, you think?" James said, finally putting his spoon full of considerably cooler soup in his mouth.

"You wound me, Prongsie," Sirius said dramatically, putting one hand over his heart. Then, removing it swiftly he said, in his normal tone of voice. "But you're right…that whole civilized-thing really isn't for me."

"I'll say," Remus muttered from where he had been sitting across from James throughout the entire conversation. When he spoke, James turned to face his other friend with narrowed eyes.

"'Fess up, Moony," James commanded. "What were you trying to get Padfoot to do for you?"

"Why on earth would I have Sirius do anything for me?" Remus asked, feigning innocence from behind his book. "I actually want to succeed in life."

"Hmm…," Sirius said thoughtfully. "The world would appear to be against me today. I knew I shouldn't have gotten out of bed this morning."

Slowly, Remus lowered his book, gave Sirius a concerned look, and then turned to face James. "OK, _that_, I had _nothing_ to do with."

"So you admit that Sirius' previous actions were meant to undermine me in some way, shape, or form?" James questioned. "Curious…very curious…."

"Did you spend all of your free time visiting Mr. Ollivander again this summer?" Peter asked from his place on James' other side, where he had been sitting silently observing his friend's throughout their entire conversation.

"OK, it was once, I was seven, and he had candy," James defended himself. "How was I supposed to know that everyone else in the world is scared of him because he acts weird sometimes?"

Now it was James' turn to receive a concerned look from Remus. "You must not have been a very sharp person when you were seven," He paused and tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Although, I must admit, I don't exactly envy your tact in some things nowadays."

"This is about Lily again, isn't it?" James asked as he looked around to make sure that she and/or none of her close friends were in the immediate area.

"What do you think?" Remus shot back.

"Oh, Moony, Moony, Moony…," James said, shaking his head and speaking as if talking to a young child. "I told you that I have a plan. You really should have some confidence in me. Then you wouldn't have to worry and fret about me so often; it would do you a world of good."

"Look," Remus said, his eyes focused on a point just beyond James' shoulder, "All I want is to get you to read just a bit more. The world of Literature is a lovely place…if you choose to visit it."

"_What_?" James said, looking thoroughly confused. "What are you talking about? I was talking about Li—"

"Lily!" Remus exclaimed loudly cutting off James' last few words. "How lovely to see you. How's your day going?"

James jerked around in his seat to see Lily standing just a few feet away, looking as if she had been about to walk over, but now was feeling indecisive about it.

"I'm…fine," She said hesitantly, surprised at Remus' un-Remus-like outburst.

"What can we do for you today?" Remus continued, a too-bright smile on his face.

"Er…actually, I came to talk to Sirius…" She said slowly. "Would you mind if I borrowed him for a moment?"

"Sirius?" James repeated, an extremely confused expression upon his face again.

Lily nodded. "Yeah, Sirius. You know, Sirius Black, your best friend. He's sitting right next to you…."

James couldn't say anything, just turned to look at Sirius who looked completely flabbergasted as to why Lily would want to speak to him.

"Erm…sure?" Sirius offered, slowly standing up.

"Great." Lily said, her face blank. She turned, "Come with me."

As the two walked away, James turned back to Remus.

"Moony," He began, looking completely lost. "Did I miss something?"

"I think we all missed something…"

**a/n-I am so incredibly sorry for the insanely long delay!! my internet hasn't worked for more than two weeks and my dad didn't want to do anything about it and my technology-impaired mom was fed up about that so she finally did something today. long story short, you finally got an update! i hope you enjoyed the chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

**a/n-sorry for the long wait. as of monday...well, i'm hoping for the best with my soon-to-not-be extinct home internet. enjoy the chapter!**

****

Chapter Six

As Sirius got up from the Gryffindor table and followed his classmate out of the Great Hall, he was nothing short of confused. Why on earth would Lily Evans, of all people, want to talk to him?

It surely couldn't be anything to do with Head duties. James was the Head Boy, not Sirius. And Lily obviously wasn't looking for James, either, as she had just spoken to him moments before and had appeared to be totally aware of the fact that it was James she was speaking with. And—Sirius shuddered to think of it—she was most certainly not asking me anything about any sort of homework they could possibly have due in class that day, which Sirius quite obviously knew nothing about. Remus would be the one to ask about that sort of thing.

So, in short, Sirius Black had no idea why he was following Lily Evans out of the Great Hall—and away from a quite spectacular lunch—to talk about who knew what. Sirius was immediately thankful that Lily's goal in life was not to become one of those touchy-feely muggle doctors who always wanted to sit down and talk about feelings—therapists, Remus had called them on the many occasions Sirius and James had been driving him insane. That brightened the outlook of whatever his conversation with Lily was supposed to be about considerably.

Lily led Sirius to a secluded corner of the Great Hall, opposite the giant hourglasses recording house points. Even as Lily patiently waited for Sirius to catch up with her, he saw a few emeralds fall to the bottom of Slytherin's hourglass.

"So…" Sirius began slowly when Lily did not immediately begin speaking. "What's up, Evans?"

"I wanted to speak to you about James." Lily replied hesitantly.

"What about him?" Sirius asked cautiously. "And why even ask me? You could just talk to him yourself."

Lily just shook her head. "You're his best friend. I gather there are some things about him you might be able to…help…me with." She finished delicately.

"Like…?" Sirius prompted.

"Why does he keep asking me if I hate him?" Lily questioned. The glint in her eyes told Sirius quite plainly that James' constant nagging was clearly driving Lily insane.

"Ah…yes, _that_." Sirius began. "No idea." He paused, a thoughtful expression one rarely saw on Sirius appearing on his face just then. "Well, actually I suppose I do. But it's long and complicated, and it has a long a complicated story behind it that I'm not even sure I understand." He frowned now. "Actually…I think the back story centers entirely around something _I_ said." He shook his head slightly. "Sorry, Evans, it's one of those strange things that James does. Although, truth be told, he does have good intentions."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Been spending some time with Remus, have you?"

"Why does no one think I can speak intelligently?" Sirius demanded. "First James, and now you. Jeez…Remus was right—you two are meant for each other."

"Oh?" Lily inquired, eyebrow rising ever higher. "Remus said that, did he?"

"Don't tell him I told you so." Sirius said swiftly. "No one's supposed to know that I'm supposedly helping Remus in his attempts to get you and James together with a plan that Remus doesn't even have but just theorizes about daily."

"I see…," Lily said slowly. "Moving on, there was something else I wanted to ask you about James."

Sirius looked at her expectantly.

"It kind of goes along with the first one." Lily said, putting off asking he question. "I suppose I could have asked you before…but, anyway, does James hate me? I mean, he keeps asking me if _I_ hate _him_. Does he _want_ me to hate him?"

"Oh yeah." Sirius said lightly. "That's just about the only thing I understand about his crazed thinking. James' goal is to get you to hate him."

"And what, exactly, is that supposed to achieve?" Lily asked slowly.

"Erm…happily ever after?" Sirius offered. "I'm not entirely sure. But in James' book, you hating him is supposed to be a good thing."

"And you don't think that's odd in any way, do you?" Lily continued her questioning.

"Well, I may not feel as strongly about it as Remus does," Sirius began, "But I can't really say I'm a fully supporter of this whole you-hating-Jamesie plan. It just seems to me to be a bit of a let-down after you _actually hating him_ for the past six years."

"Hmm…it does, doesn't it?" Lily said a bit ponderingly, more to herself than to Sirius. "The only problem," She continued, now definitely in full conversation solely with herself, "Is that I've never really hated him."

"Say that again." Sirius requested.

"Huh?"

"You just said you 'never really hated James.'" Sirius said with an accusatory tone. "Do you have any idea how much my ears have suffered through the years because you 'hated' James?! I'm surprised they even still work!"

"Think positively, Sirius," Lily remained calm although Sirius was quite plainly shouting at her. "At least it hasn't affected your hair."

Sirius' eyes went wide as the plates he wasn't using to not eat lunch. "Oh…that would be bad…I don't even want to think of the nightmare it would be if my hair were anything less than its current perfection."

"You've seriously been spending too much time with Remus." Lily stated.

"Ha ha, very funny." Sirius muttered at the unintentional pun.

"Look, here's the bottom line, Sirius." Lily said. "I wanted to talk to you, because I need a better understanding of what's going on inside of James' head."

"Why would you want to understand _that_?"

"Because…" Lily began but immediately trailed off. Her gaze drifted to the hourglasses across the hall. "Have you noticed anything peculiar about James this year so far?"

"If you're referring to his blatant preference for not pranking people, then yes, I have." Sirius replied. "Otherwise, that'd be a solid no."

"He's stopped asking me out." Lily stated. "It all boils down to that." She sighed, still not looking at Sirius. "I can't believe I'm telling you any of this. In fact, I wasn't even planning on talking to you at all today until I saw you talking to him in the Great Hall." She paused and took a deep breath. "A year ago…a few months ago, and I would have loved the fact that James had stopped asking me out. Now, however, I'm not that lucky."

"So, let me get this straight." Sirius said when Lily didn't continue. "The whole reason you wanted to talk to me right now, combined with what you're saying now, all means that you've decided to actually like my little Jamsie?"

"Isn't he older than you?" Lily asked, avoiding admitting the answer to Sirius' question.

"It's definitely a possibility." Sirius said offhandedly. "But that's not the point. I asked you whether or not you like James as more than just…well, a regular everyday type of person."

"Well, I suppose I do." Lily said slowly. "I'm not sure why, but I do."

"He'd be pleased, if you told him."

"I highly doubt that." Lily said. "Have you ever seen his reaction to me telling him that I hate him?"

"Of course." Sirius said with a shrug. "He's always ecstatic about it. But now that you've gotten me thinking about it, I think I've remembered the story behind that."

"Yes?" Lily prompted impatiently.

"James has some convoluted thought that it's better for you to hate him than for you to be totally indifferent about him." Sirius said. "His reasoning—which was originally Remus', as I recall—Is that, if you hate him, than you're actually taking the time to feel some sort of emotion for him whether it be hate…or, what he really wants: love."


	7. Chapter 7

**a/n-i'm insanely sorry for the long wait for this chapter. as you may have guessed i'm not very into updating recently. on another note, you should go read the story i'm co-authoring with An-Jelly-Ca, there's a link in my profile. enjoy the chapter!**

**Chapter Seven**

Time. It was something that Lily quite obviously did not have. She was at the top of her class, and expected to stay there; she was taking all of the classes necessary for her to become a healer once she graduated; her Head Girl Duties always demanded her full attention; and she had recently unconsciously decided to fall in love with James Potter. Yes, it was very apparent, to Lily at least, that she had too much on her plate, and not enough time for all of it. But would she want to give any of it up? Not a chance.

When Lily and Sirius parted ways shortly following Sirius's pronouncement of James' true reasoning, Sirius went back to his friends and his lunch in the Great Hall. Lily went in the opposite direction, towards the Gryffindor Common Room. If she wanted to be able to do her patrol with James tonight, and get at least a few hours of sleep, it would be a good idea to attempt a start at her homework now.

As she made her way back towards the Common Room, Lily felt strangely lopsided, as if something were missing. Already, even after only a few weeks back at school, she was used to the heavy presence of her packed school bag, and not used to not carrying it with her everywhere. As soon as she realized that she didn't have her bag full of homework, Lily turned around immediately, and started making her way back to the Entrance Hall, where she figured she must have left it while she was talking to Sirius.

Just as Lily was walking down the marble staircase, James was exiting the Great Hall by himself, having finished his lunch early and now determined to find Lily, coincidentally, having failed to get any information out of Sirius. At first, Lily didn't even notice him; her eyes were fixed on a corner of the Hall, where her school bag was currently residing.

"Lily!" James called out suddenly, when he spotted Lily at the bottom of the staircase.

Lily's head swiveled around quickly in surprise, not having realized that there was someone else in the Entrance Hall with her, and she was that focused on finding her homework.

"Oh, hello, James." She said softly, her pulse slowing down considerably after the moment of minor shock.

She continued towards the corner where her school bag was and James jogged over to catch up with her. He got to the corner just a second before her, and snatched up her school bag before she could even blink. James slung it over his shoulder, ignoring its blatant heaviness that would later cause his shoulder immense pain.

"Where're you headed?" He asked Lily.

"Er…the Common Room." Lily replied, taken aback by his chivalry. "You don't have to carry my bag; I can manage."

James merely shrugged. "It's alright. I'm used to carrying Sirius around everywhere, and he's much heavier."

Lily just looked at him strangely.

"It was just a joke, Lily." James said slowly.

"Oh…" Lily turned and began making her way back to the Common Room, once again.

Again, James caught up with her and slowed down to a walk beside her. Out of the corner of his eye, James noticed for the first time how very tired and worn out Lily looked. He knew she took her schoolwork and her Head Girl duties very seriously, but he hadn't known how much of a toll it was taking on her.

"Lots of homework?" James asked conversationally.

"Just that essay for Slughorn." Lily replied.

"You'll get an O on that one, no problem." James told her. "Ol' Sluggy loves you; it would be a sign of the apocalypse for him to give you anything less than that."

Lily narrowed her eyes at James. "Just because Slughorn over-exalts my moderate potions work in class, doesn't mean I should slack off just because I know he'll still give me a good grade. I actually want to succeed in life, you know."

"Er…yeah." James tried to agree, but was unsure if he was just making things worse. The whole outlook for his day had already gone done. It would appear that Lily was having one of those days when it was a terrible time to be named James Potter. And things had been looking quite good at lunch…what _had_ she and Sirius talked about?

The rest of the walk back to the common room was a silent one. James decided it would be best not to try to further engage Lily in conversation. After six years he had learned that life was always better when Lily wasn't mad at you…although he _had_ already determined that her hatred of him _was_ a good thing. So James said nothing more and Lily didn't speak either.

"Oh, aren't the two of you just adorable?" The fat lady asked the pair when they arrived at the portrait hole. "I've been waiting for years for the two of you to get together."

Lily and James just looked at her, both of their mouths slightly agape.

"We're not…together." Lily finally managed to get out through her shock.

"Well why on earth not?" The fat lady practically demanded. "The two of you would make the loveliest couple." She turned her attention to James. "And you, young man, don't tell me you've given up on this one?" She nodded in Lily's direction. "Oh the arguments that the two of you have had! They've given me the worst headaches!"

"I—" James began but immediately stopped, not knowing what to say to that pronouncement.

"Godric!" Lily suddenly said.

Presented with the password, the Fat Lady had no choice but to swing herself forward and admit the two Head students into the Gryffindor common room. Lily and James were both quick to climb through the portrait hole, the sooner they escaped the Fat Lady, the better. Once they were both inside, Lily turned to face James.

"Can I have my books back?" She asked.

Wordlessly, James slipped the heavy bag off of his shoulder and handed it over to the girl before him. He opened his mouth to say something as Lily swung it onto her shoulder, totally oblivious to the heavy weight, but she cut him off.

"I'll see you later for patrols, then." She said shortly, and without another word, she turned and made her way up to the girl's dormitory, where James could not follow her.

With a defeated sigh, James collapsed into the nearest armchair. So, that conversation hadn't gone entirely as planned…in fact, it had turned out the very opposite of what James had hoped for.

All he had wanted to do was ask her what she had talked to Sirius about. And it was quite obvious that their talk had had something to do with him. When Sirius had come back into the Great Hall in order to fully satiate his hunger he had determinedly not made eye contact with James for some unknown reason. And when James had attempted to ask Sirius what he and Lily had talked about, Sirius had just brushed the questions off by saying something about homework.

That was when James had figured out that something was definitely up. It was very rare that Lily didn't know something about their homework assignment, and there was definitely no way on earth that the person she'd ask about homework was Sirius. Lily, as she had pointed out to him just a few minutes before, was one of those people whose goal it was to succeed in life when it came to academics.

James just didn't know what was going on anymore. In the beginning, so long ago now, it had been simple enough. His goal in life had been to get Lily to hate him. Even now, he knew that was definitely better for him than Lily simply not caring a bit about him. But that was where his problems seemed to arise.

Lily definitely hated him that much was clear. But now that James was actually spending time thinking about his plan he came to a sudden realization: he had never had a plan. And that was a problem. Because somewhere along the way his one-track goal of getting Lily to hate him had gotten way out of control.

Judging from the way his most recent interaction with Lily had just gone, James would be quite lucky to ever get Lily to change her mind about hating him, which was his ultimate goal. Yes, Lily hating him was definitely good. But a Lily who loved him would be so much better.

James' face lit up as sudden realization dawned.

And tonight during patrols would be the perfect opportunity to make the transition


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

"Hey guys, I have to leave for patrols now," James said, standing up in front of the common room fire. "I'll see you later…tomorrow."

Remus just waved his hand impatiently from behind the book he was reading.

"Bye Jamsie-poo!" Sirius called after James, as he walked away, towards where Lily was waiting by the portrait hole for him.

Peter was asleep on top of his transfiguration homework and didn't say anything.

Once James had walked away, Remus looked up to make certain that James really had gone, before throwing his book carelessly to the side and turning to face Sirius with a quite serious expression on his face.

"What did you and Lily talk about this afternoon?" Remus asked without preamble.

When Sirius at first didn't reply, seemingly immersed in the task of levitating a feather to tickle the sleeping Peter's nose, Remus thought that Sirius simply hadn't heard him. But just as Remus opened his mouth to ask again, Sirius did respond.

"Nothing much," Sirius said with a shrug. "I just had to enlighten Lily to all of life's craziness and other such things. And to imagine, I once thought that Lily Evans knew everything."

"What are you talking about?" Remus was very confused.

Sirius lowered his wand, unfortunately un-amused; Peter was fast asleep and apparently immune to feathers. Instead, Sirius turned to look at Remus as he spoke.

"Lily didn't get what was up with Jamsie acting all…strange around her," Sirius said with another shrug. "You know how he's been going on about his plan for ultimate hatred…. Well, apparently, it's not only gotten Lily to hate him, but it's also gotten her quite confused about Jamsie's apparent mood change, or whatever you wanna call it."

"So you guys talked about Lily hating James?" Remus clarified. For all of his superior intellect, it was hard for anyone to follow everything Sirius said, and the way he said it.

Sirius nodded. "And then I told her about how James has that crazed plan to get Lily to hate him."

"What did Lily say when you told her that?" Remus asked slowly.

"That she doesn't hate him anymore," Sirius said with yet another shrug, disinterested.

"_What?_" Remus practically shouted. "Do you have any idea what this _means_?"

Sirius just looked at Remus as if he'd gone insane. "No…."

"It means our plan worked!" Remus said triumphantly, though at a slightly lower volume, having noticed the Gryffindors in the common room giving him strange looks as a result of his previous un-Remus-like outburst.

"Okay…," Sirius said slowly, as if he didn't understand what Remus was saying. Then, "What was our plan again?"

Remus opened his mouth to respond, but promptly shut it again. He was silent for a moment before speaking again.

"You know, I'm not really sure what our plan was. But whatever, it was, it worked!"

* * *

As Lily and James began their round of patrols for the night there was an awkward silence between the two of them. Lily was remembering the conversation she'd had with Sirius and everything that she had revealed to him. She was also hoping quite fiercely that he hadn't told his best friend (a.k.a.-the person walking right beside her) anything about the talk the two of them had had.

James, quite unsurprisingly, was thinking about Lily. More specifically that his whole plan for the past six years had been quite terrible. Namely because his whole plan had been to just wing it whenever he saw Lily which obviously hadn't worked out very well for him, hence the reason she was constantly getting so annoyed by him. Even for the past few months his 'Grand Master Plan In Which Lily Hates Me' hadn't really been going very according to plan. Well, it actually had gone the way he wanted, because it was very easy to see that Lily _did_ hate James. However, now that he knew he was capable of actually provoking some type of emotion in Lily, James would much prefer a different type of emotion to be issued in his direction; an emotion he, himself, had tried for years to express to Lily. He had been quite unsuccessful in that, though.

Now everything was coming to a close, James could see that now. His encounter with Lily earlier in the afternoon had shown him just that.

Yes, he had achieved his ultimate goal of getting Lily to hate him, but there was no way of him knowing just how much of him Lily could endure before there was no turning back from hating him. Life was just cruel like that.

So now James had figured up a new line of approach, one that would hopefully be so different from all of his other, numerous tactics over the years, that it would finally show Lily the side of him that he so desperately wanted to show her. And, as he had been so enlightened this afternoon, James knew that now was the perfect time to show Lily exactly what he'd been trying to for years.

"So, Lily, I've been thinking," James began suddenly, glancing at her as they walked down the torch-lit corridor. "You know, we've known each other for six years now, but I can't say I know very much about you."

"Why would you want to know stuff about me?" Lily asked, not in the least bit defensive, just a bit perplexed. As James knew very well, this was a side of him she had never seen before. He was just so…civil, and rather friendly. It was actually quite a frightening change for Lily to be witness to.

James shrugged in response. "Just because. I mean, look at us: we're the head students. Together. Yeah, we're doing that whole 'being civil with each other' routine, but wouldn't you rather have someone who was more like a friend for you, rather than just someone who you basically spent six years arguing with?"

"Are you trying to tell me that you're going to go to Dumbledore and resign as Head Boy and then suggest that Remus takes your place?" Lily asked him suspiciously.

"Now this is the sort of thing I'm talking about!" James exclaimed. "How on earth can you and Remus be such good friends while Remus and I are such goods friends, and yet you totally hate me? It's just something I don't understand. And of course, it's something that's just not helping the two of us get past our issues and become friends. We need to be able to tell each other things, Lily, and this is an excellent place to start."

As James spoke, Lily just stopped walking and looked at him as if he'd gone crazy.

"Don't give me that look, Lily," James told her, turning back to face her, once he'd realized that she had stopped walking. "Just answer the question."

"Erm…alright, then," Lily said, sounding just a bit uncertain, and still wearing the same expression upon her face. "Let's see, Remus and I? We became friends…er…actually, I'm not sure why we became friends. I think it was on the train to Hogwarts before first year."

"Then?" James questioned with an uncomfortable grimace. "_That_ train ride?"

"Yes," Lily replied, continuing to walk again, James keeping pace at her side. "That train ride. After Severus and I left the compartment you and Sirius were in, the only open compartment was the one Remus was in. He was quite happy to let us sit with him. Remus and Severus actually got along quite marvelously, until he became friends with you, that is."

James shrugged. "That actually does explain quite a bit. That's how Sirius and I met as well—on the train, I mean," He paused, as if unsure that he should continue. "And how did you and Sniv—Snape meet each other and become friends?"

Lily frowned, as if it were a subject she really didn't want to discuss. "Severus and I grew up very near to each, and we met when we were both nine years old. He was the first person to tell me that all of the strange stuff I could do was magic. We became close friends even though it really upset my sister."

"Speaking of Petunia," James began, when Lily finished, "How is she doing these days? Can she stand being in the same room as you yet?"

"No. I haven't even seen her in more than a year," Lily said slowly, then she gave James the smallest of grins possible. "I didn't think you'd remember her."

"How could I forget her?" He said with a dismissive shrug. "So, how are your parents doing?"

Lily and James spent the rest of their patrol talking with each other, James asking Lily questions about her childhood most of the time, but with Lily asking a few of her own questions as well. By the time they had finished their patrol and Lily was by herself in her dormitory hours later, she was finally starting to see that James really wasn't as annoying of a person as she had always made him out to be. In his own dormitory, James lay in his bed, arms folded behind his head, a happy smile upon his face.

Everything had gone according to plan tonight with Lily. And the best part of all of that had been his plan, and it had been the one he now realized he should have been going by all along: James had been himself with Lily.


	9. Chapter 9

**a/n-so, this took awhile, didn't it? writer's block is a killer. however, in the midst of attempting to write this chapter several times, I actually finished with one attempt and realized it didn't really fit in with the context of this story. so now you should all go read that story, which is called Sirius the Seer? because it was originally going to be ch. 9 of this story. but that's all i'm going to say now, because i've got some major studying to go do. so yeah, i'll update as soon as i can, but it won't be for at least another two weeks. enjoy the chapter!**

**Chapter Nine**

The next morning James went down to breakfast by himself, happier than he could remember being for the longest time, due in full to the evening of pleasant conversation he'd shared with Lily on their patrol the night before. And of course, the realization that he might finally have found a way into Lily's heart, but that, of course, still remained to be seen.

James entered the somewhat crowded Great Hall and immediately spotted his three closest friends sitting at the far end of the Gryffindor Table. Another quick glance around revealed that Lily was nowhere in the general vicinity, but James wouldn't let that bring his mood down. He quickly made his way over to his friends and sat down next to Peter, across from Sirius.

"Good morning, everyone," James said cheerfully, a large grin stretched across his features.

Sirius frowned at him across the breakfast table. "It should be illegal for a person to be so cheerful at this time of the morning."

"No need to be so morbid all of the time, Padfoot," James chastised his friend, grinning all the while. "A little optimism will do wonders for you. Why, did you know that, statistically, you'll add years onto your life span if you're optimistic, rather than pessimistic?"

"I do now." Sirius said, rather grumpily.

"I take it your patrol with Lily went well, then?" Remus asked James over his morning paper. "I think what Sirius meant to say was that none of us have ever seen you in such a good mood in the morning unless you had a good reason for it."

"It was wonderful," James replied dreamily, staring off into space, remembering the hours he had spent with Lily the night before.

"Oi!" Sirius flicked a piece of scrambled egg at his friend. "Unless she came to her senses and you two declared your undying love for each other, got married right away, and had a kid who you made me the godfather of, all in one night, then I don't want to hear about your lovesickness this early in the morning. I am trying to eat, you know."

James ignored him, except to flick the piece of egg off of his cheek and onto Peter's head. Neither of them noticed however, as James was too busy being overjoyed with life, and Peter was too busy eating.

"What did happen?" Remus asked, also ignoring Sirius' request. "You're in too good of a mood for something to not have happened between the two of you."

"We talked," James said with a happy sigh.

"About what, your impending nuptials?" Sirius asked.

"About life…the universe…her sister…" James replied.

"Her _sister_," Sirius repeated dubiously. "That's it—I give up! I will never understand you, Prongs. Remind me again why you and I claim to be best friends?"

"I did what I should have done all along, Moony," James began, finally focusing in on his sandy-haired friend. "I was myself with Lily. And it really worked; I should have listened to your advice _ages_ ago."

"That I know," Remus replied.

"Ooh, Prongs, don't look now, but Lily's just sitting down with Mary and Marlene," Sirius began suddenly, interrupting James from talking to Remus, and James of course turned at once to look eagerly. "And Snivelly looks like he's headed their way."

"What!" James nearly yelped. Seeing this with his own eyes, he was half-way out of his seat before Remus spoke.

"Shh!" Remus said hurriedly. "James, stay here and stay calm."

"But it's _Snivellus_!" James protested in a harsh whisper, plopping back down on to the bench. "I can't let him talk to _Lily_!"

"You're the one who just admitted that you should've listened to my advice ages ago," Remus reminded the black-haired boy on the other side of the table. "And don't you remember what I told you on the train home last June?"

"No," James replied when Remus didn't continue, as it that was the obvious answer.

"I told you that you have to be nice to people, including Snape," Remus stated. He held up his hand when James tried to interrupt. "I know it's more likely that Dumbledore will shave his beard and never have twinkling eyes ever again, before Snape doesn't try to attack you first. But if he's not bothering you directly, don't cause a scene, even if you don't like the fact that he's going to talk to Lily. Besides, you know better than I do how much Lily holds grudges. If she doesn't want Snape bothering her, she's more than capable of making that known."

"Fine," James said, a bit grudgingly himself. He looked back over to where Lily was sitting with her friends to see that Snape had indeed been moving in her direction. The pair now seemed to be having quite an animated conversation. James groaned into his hands at this. "So much for my happy ending."

"It's okay, Prongsie," Sirius said consolingly, patting James' arm. "Just let it all out; say what you need to say."

"My life is over!" James said dramatically, although it was slightly muffled due to the fact that he was speaking into his hands and the table. "Lily is going to become friends with Snivellus again and then he's going to poison her mind against me and…and…it's just going to be so horrible!"

"Man, you really sounded like a teenage girl right there," Sirius said, sounding just a tad scared of his friend. "And really, you need to get yourself a better pair of eyes."

"Why is that?" James questioned. "So that I can see how happy Lily and Snivelly are together?"

"No," Sirius contradicted. "So that you can Lily cursing Snivelly. I've been waiting for this day for years! Lily has finally crossed over to the dark side, it's official."

Remus looked at Sirius with some concern. "I can see that you've finally filled your quota for how much sugar you need to intake before you become alive in the morning."

Sirius ignored him.

James, meanwhile, was beaming with pride at the purplish welts that could now be seen covering Snape's face from practically the other side of the Great Hall.

"That's my Lily," James said proudly. "Perfectly capable of handling herself with Snivellus."

Remus merely shook his head, but managed to look pleased at the same time. "Well, there you have it. We've finally witnessed some growth, James. You've managed to not attack Snape for the 'crime' of talking to Lily, and you've also recognized that Lily can easily manage to do things for herself. And seeing as I doubt you're even listening to me right now, I doubt you'll be remembering this later on."

"I think I'll go talk to Lily right now," James decided, again attempting to stand up.

In the blink of an eye, Remus had lunged across the table, and grabbed James' arm, forcing him to sit down again.

"And there you go, that just proves my point that you weren't listening," He said with a roll of his eyes. "James, just let Lily be for the moment. The fact that she actually let Snape speak to her seems to indicate that she is also in a good mood this morning, but don't ruin that by going to talk to her moments after she lost her patience and cursed Snape. You don't want her to get away with herself and curse you, too."

"Point taken," James said with a decisive nod.

Remus glanced down at his watch then.

"We should probably be getting to class now, anyway," He said, folding his newspaper up and placing it carefully in his school bag, which was underneath the bench.

Sirius just looked at him strangely for a moment, then, when Remus wasn't paying attention, grabbed his wrist and looked at the watch resting there.

"Class doesn't start for more than twenty more minutes, Moony." Sirius informed his friend.

"Exactly," Remus replied. "That's twenty good minutes we could be using to study for the N.E.W.T.'s. You don't want to fail those and end up as a janitor at the Ministry of Magic, do you?"

"Er…Moony?" James said. "You do realize that we don't have to take those tests until June, right? It is only September right now. At least, it was last time I checked. Why do we need to study now?"

Remus did not answer James' question immediately. He did, however, freeze halfway out of his seat, his eyes wide open with shock as he stared at his friend sitting before him.

"What did you just say?" Remus finally asked, very slowly. "Did you really just say that we don't need to study? Did you _really_? What's wrong with you!"

As he spoke, Remus' voice slowly got louder and louder, until he was practically shouting at James. And as he spoke, James attempted to lean as far back as possible from him and consequently almost fell off of the bench.

"Erm…I'm sorry?" James offered. "I didn't realize you felt so strongly about this?"

"Well, obviously not," Remus sounded highly affronted. He stood the rest of the way up and swung his legs over the bench. "If you'll excuse me, I need to get to class. I assume I'll see you there in twenty minutes."

Without another word he made his way down the aisle between the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables. Once he was gone Sirius turned to look at James, looking slightly amused.

"Do you suppose he realized that he just made a fool of himself in the middle of the Great Hall?" He asked.

"No, probably not," James replied, still looking just a bit scared.

At this, Sirius just shook his head sadly. "Poor Moony. It really saddens me to see how negatively his studies are affecting him, and so early on in the year, too."

"Is there really something wrong with Remus?" A new voice asked from behind James.

At the sound of the voice, James suddenly began choking on the piece of toast he had just put in his mouth.

"Lily!" He exclaimed brightly, turning around. Or rather, as brightly as a person can sound when they feel as if they've just choked to death.

"Hey James," Lily replied lightly. "So, is Remus going to alright?"

"Remus?" James asked. "Oh! You mean _Remus_!"

"Yeah…," Lily said slowly, giving James a look he was all too familiar with. It was one she'd given him quite often, back in the beginning, in their first year. It was a look that clearly said she thought James was nothing less than clinically insane.

"He'll be just fine," James said with a wave of his hand, as if brushing the matter away. "Just nervous about the N.E.W.T.'s, that's all. He doesn't think he has enough time to study for them. Nothing to worry about, really."

"If you say so, then." Lily replied, looking unconvinced. "I suppose he went to class?"

James nodded eagerly. "Would you like me to show you where that is?"

"No. That's quite alright," Lily said, still giving James that look. "I've only been in school here for half a dozen years already. I think I know where we have class by now."

"Oh." James looked crestfallen now.

"Hey James?" Lily continued.

"Yes?" James immediately brightened up.

"Are you O.K.?"

"Of course I am." James replied. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You seem a bit…off…today," Lily said slowly. "Maybe I should go talk to Dumbledore. I really think the late night yesterday on patrol has taken its toll on you."

"I'm perfectly alright," James insisted. He suddenly stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder in the same instant. "In fact, I think I'll go join Remus. I need to get a bit of studying in, too."

A puzzled expression appeared on Lily's face as she watched James walk away, back towards the entrance into the entrance hall. Once he had disappeared from her sight she turned to look at Sirius, who was still sitting at the breakfast table.

"I don't think you should eat any more of that food," she recommended to him. "There's obviously something wrong with it."

And with that final word, she turned and made her way back down the table to where she had previously been sitting with her friends. As she left, Peter looked at Sirius, his eyes wide with fear, his fork half-way up towards his mouth.

"There isn't really something wrong with the food, is there?"


	10. Chapter 10

**a/n-as it was so much more fun than studying for finals like I should've been doing, this is the end result of spending my time unwisely (academically speaking, of course). Enjoy the chapter!**

**disclaimer-I cannot recall a time previously when I've ever claimed to be J.K. Rowling. Sadly, I still cannot claim to be her, so go sue somebody else.**

**Chapter Ten**

As Lily Evans made her way slowly to class after breakfast, her mind couldn't help but wander to one Mr. James Potter. Or, as she had lovingly referred to him for years as a bullying old toe rag.

Now, however, she couldn't help but notice how much he had changed from the person he once had been. It was rather startling, really, how different he was from just a few months ago at the end of their sixth year. Although, speaking of the end of sixth year…that had been when the beginning of the strangeness had occurred.

They had talked on the train for a bit, and James hadn't been happy until she had sworn she hated him. And then at the beginning of this year, when he had shown up with the Head Boy badge, she had seen a more responsible side of the dark-haired, be-spectacled boy. Remus had said he was trying to prove himself to someone. And whoever that person might be, Lily thought James was definitely doing a good job. And then there was that theory Sirius had had, which was just the craziest thing Lily had ever heard. Why would James spend so many years trying to get Lily to go out with him, only to suddenly want her to hate him?

But there was one thing that was really starting to bother her now.

Lily found herself wishing, beyond all belief, that the person James was trying to impress and prove himself to _was_ her.

Even as the thought came unbidden to her head, Lily couldn't help but think that she didn't mind it at all. Gone was the girl who hated every fiber of James Potter's being. Gone was the teenager who wanted nothing more than to blast James to a million tiny pieces. All of the animosity towards him was gone, and Lily wasn't quite sure what the thing that was replacing it was. And to be truthful, it rather frightened her.

But, temporarily forgetting all of that for just a moment, one thing was startlingly clear, to her at least: Lily Evans no longer hated James Potter.

It was surely a sign of the impending apocalypse, in which the world as she knew it ceased to exist in any way, shape, or form.

Blinking suddenly, Lily found herself in front of the closed door to the classroom she had been headed towards. She suddenly felt a small smile come unbidden to her lips. James was behind that door.

Reaching a hand out slowly, she twisted the door handle and pushed the door open. Walking inside, she saw that Remus and James were the only two people yet in the room, as it was still a good ten minutes before class was going to begin. The two were sitting in the back of the classroom, heads bent over their books. James looked up when she entered.

On any other day, in any other year previously James would have smiled at Lily. Or rather, he would have given her one of his smirks that she had so detested for so long. He probably would have run his fingers through his already messy hair. He might even have said something to her; and it probably would have been something along the lines of 'Go out with me, Evans.' It wouldn't have been a question, but not a command either, more of a statement. It still wouldn't have happened.

However, on this day, not too far into their seventh year, what did happen when James and Lily made eye contact in their Charms classroom was nothing. Or, more precisely, James looked up when Lily entered the room and promptly resumed looking at the open textbook on the desk before him.

Lily frowned in part confusion, part frustration over this. Over the years, she had been accustomed to most, if not all, of James Potter's strange habits, and the annoying things he did. Needless to say, Lily was not the type of person to find studying strange or annoying. She did, however, find it immensely odd that James Potter was studying, and apparently out of his own free will. All was definitely not right with the world.

And Lily Evans was determined to find out why that was so. So, mind finally made up, and determined not to think about her decision any more than was absolutely necessary, Lily nodded her head in firm resolve and entered the classroom. Only pausing to shut the door behind herself, she continued in what looked like a very determined march toward the back of the classroom. Not wanting to push things too far, and also not wanting to regret her decision later, during class, when paying attention was quite imperative to future success, Lily took the open desk next to Remus.

Remus, unlike James, had not looked up when Lily had entered the classroom, and therefore was not aware of the identity of the person currently seated next to him.

"You're awfully early for class today, Peter," Remus said, without looking up from his notes.

"That'd be because I'm not Peter," Lily said, pulling her textbook out of her school bag. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that James was still bent over his book, but she had a great suspicion that he wasn't reading it any longer.

At the sound of her voice, Remus looked up and turned to his right to find Lily sitting there.

"Lily!" Remus said, sounding very surprised. "Erm…sorry. It's just, Peter usually sits there…"

Lily smiled at her longtime friend. "Don't worry about it, Remus. I know you haven't forgotten who I am. I think it's nice that you're using the extra time to get in some early studying for N.E.W.T.'s."

"Finally!" Remus exclaimed, sitting back in his chair, which unsurprisingly did nothing to improve his comfort level. "Someone who appreciates the need for academic success. You have no idea how long I've been waiting to find someone like you, Lily."

Lily merely raised an eyebrow and glanced down at the watch strapped to her wrist. Movement at the corner of her vision caught her attention in time to see James shaking his head slowly, most likely in response to Remus' statement. Lily, surprisingly, found herself in silent agreement with James, for what was most likely the first time in the history of the universe.

"You mean as opposed to about thirteen hours ago when we last saw each other and discussed many things, all of which had something to do with academics?" Lily questioned.

"Ah yes…I'd forgotten about that," Remus said slowly.

Lily frowned. "I really am starting to think there was something funny going on with the food at your end of the table, you know."

"Nonsense," Remus insisted. "The food was perfect, as usual." He turned suddenly to James. "You know, we really should go see the House Elves soon. _If_ something was wrong with the food, that might have been their way of saying that they know we're back from the summer holiday."

James took his time raising his head to look up at Remus. "If you want, we can go tonight."

"Don't we have a patrol tonight, James?" Lily immediately put in.

"I—" James began, but immediately cut off, looking a bit taken aback. He opened his mouth to try again. "What did you just say?"

"Don't we have to patrol tonight?" Lily said, enunciating as if she was talking to someone with bad hearing and giving James a concerned look.

"Erm…yes." James said finally, after a moment of silence, still staring at Lily with a shocked expression upon her face. "Oh, we have a patrol tonight!" He turned back to Remus. "Sorry, mate, maybe tomorrow night. I don't think you can handle Padfoot on sugar with just Wormtail."

Remus sighed. "Do we have to bring Sirius? You know I'd really rather not have to deal with a sugar-high Sirius at all."

James grinned, and Lily felt her heart melting ever so slightly at the sight of it. "Marauders code: Never leave a man behind. Especially when we're going on a kitchen raid."

"If you want to spend time with your friends, you don't have to patrol with me tonight," Lily said suddenly, wondering, even as she said it, why she was offering. After all, she _had_ just discovered that she would much rather spend time with James Potter than away from him.

"Really?" James asked incredulously. "You really mean it, Lily?"

Lily shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so."

Now, as James turned the full attention of his broad grin on her, Lily felt her heart melting so much more than it had before.

"That's O.K., Lily," James said with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry, I won't ever abandon you; especially for something unimportant like a kitchen raid."

"What?" Remus hissed under his breath to James. "What are you talking about? Even _I_ know the importance and large significance of the ritualistic kitchen raids!"

Lily saw James kick Remus under his desk, and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Don't worry about it," James reassured her. "It won't be a problem; not at all."

Nothing more could be said, however, because the rest of the class and their professor began filing into the classroom, Sirius and Peter rushing into the room just as the bell to begin class was ringing. Lily passed the class period with a small, secretive smile upon her face as she hurriedly took notes on everything the professor was lecturing about. And so, when the bell rang to signal the end of the class period, it was without even thinking twice about it that Lily hurriedly put all of her things into her bag and gave James a smile, before rushing out of the room.

James, on his part, just sat in his chair, looking flabbergasted.

"You know," he began in a hoarse whisper. "I'm really starting to think that Lily was right about the food this morning."

**a/n-ok, so really quick, up above a bit, James mentioned something called 'The Marauder's Code.' If you want to read what the actual code is, then I suggest you go read the story I'm co-authoring with An-Jelly-Ca under our joint penname SiRiUsLyPiNkAnDgReEn. It's called Si Fecisti Nega! If you did it, deny it! This is the link, just remove the spaces, as I'm sure you've heard multiple times before. http : // www . fanfiction . net/ s/ 4276228 /1/ Si_fecisti_nega_If_you_did_it_deny_it**

**An-Jelly-Ca and I would love it if you went and reviewed that story!**

**Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter!**


	11. Chapter 11

**a/n-We're just going to ignore the fact that it's been nine months and one day since I updated this story, ok? We're also going to ignore the fact that when I realized it's been so long and I went looking for this story on my computer, I discovered that this chapter was started about nine months ago. Sorry for the long wait. I'm thinking this story is definitely going to be ending soon. Hope you like the chapter!**

**disclaimer-Not my characters.  
**

**Chapter Eleven**

Lily collapsed onto her bed after dinner with a small groan. The pleasant happiness she had felt that morning as she left the Charms classroom had long since faded, and right now the only thing she wanted to do was fall asleep and not wake up until July, when the school year was long over.

"Long day?" A voice asked from across the room.

Lily sat up to see Mary sitting on her bed with her homework spread out before her.

"You have no idea." Lily replied, lying back down. "If I never have to have anything to do with school ever again, I'll be the happiest person alive."

"I have a feeling you're going to be saying that every Thursday for the next nine and a half months." Mary replied, trying her best not to laugh. "It's your own fault that you're taking so many classes that the only break you have today is for lunch. But hey, you can skip your homework tonight and go to bed now."

"No I can't." Lily said, sitting back up and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. "I have to go patrol with James."

"James?" Mary questioned, one eyebrow raised. "That's new."

"Honestly Mary," Lily rolled her eyes, "I'm allowed to call a person by his or her first name, you know."

"Yeah, but you calling Potter by his first name is pretty much a sign of the impending apocalypse." Mary replied. "Should I be concerned?"

"Only if you plan on sneaking out of the common room tonight while I'm patrolling." Lily said. "Otherwise, I'm pretty sure that my calling James by his first name is going to end the world."

"Well, it would be nice if it did." Mary said with a sigh. "I really don't want to take that Charms test tomorrow. Or that Ancient Runes one. Oh, or the one I have in Arithmancy."

"It's only the first week of school, still." Lily replied. "Those aren't really tests, Mary. I have to take them, too, you know. They're just to make sure we haven't forgotten anything over the summer because it's N.E.W.T.'s this year."

"Do you think it would be bad if I just didn't take those stupid tests?" Mary asked as Lily began walking towards the door. "I mean, honestly, what's the worst that could happen?"

"You won't get a job." Lily stated, her hand on the doorknob now. She turned back to look at her friend. "Have fun studying, Mary!"

And with another smile, Lily opened the door and made her way back down to the Common Room. She spotted Remus, Sirius, and Peter over by the fire when she entered the room, but James was nowhere in sight, so she headed towards the portrait hole.

"Hey James." Lily said with a smile when she stepped out of the portrait hole to see James leaning casually against the wall. "You're early."

"I promise it'll never happen ever again." James replied. "It's just so…not normal."

Lily just rolled her eyes, but a small smile still lingered across her face as the pair began their patrol. They walked in silence for a few minutes, each left to their own thoughts, when Lily suddenly turned her head to look at James, walking beside her.

"I've been thinking," She began slowly and James was unsure if he should be worried about where that statement was going to end. "And I've come to the conclusion that you have odd friends."

"They aren't that odd." James said with a wave of his hand, relieved at where this conversation seemed to be heading. "And isn't Remus your friend, too?"

"That isn't the matter at hand here." Lily said with a dismissive wave of her own hand. "And they are odd. What was that about ritualistic kitchen raids in class this morning? And your…conversation with Remus today at breakfast? And…" Lily paused momentarily before continuing on, hoping things would go the way she desperately wanted them to. "Well, I had and interesting conversation with Sirius yesterday."

"Oh?" James asked, his attention instantly piqued.

"Yeah." Lily said shortly and without further elaboration.

"What about?" James practically demanded.

"Um…well…you." Lily replied hesitantly, suddenly nervous.

James narrowed his eyes, recalling what his supposed best friend in the entire world had told him the previous morning. "…Sirius said you had a question about homework."

"Sirius lied." Lily said, appalled that _anyone_ would _ever_ think that she, Lily Evans, would _ever_ ask _Sirius Black_ for help with her precious schoolwork. But that really isn't the matter at hand here…

If possible, James narrowed his eyes even more so that they now appeared to be nothing more than thin slits. He, James Potter, had been the topic of a conversation between his best friend and…well…hopefully his future wife, but he didn't want to get too ahead of himself thinking that. Why on earth would they be talking about him?

"Why?" James asked.

"Why did Sirius lie?" Lily asked. Then she shrugged. "Because he can."

"No, why did you and Sirius talk about me?" James amended, a feeling of trepidation rising in his stomach.

Again, Lily shrugged. "It was easier to talk to him than it was to talk to you, I suppose. Besides, I didn't think you'd give me a straight answer about what I wanted to ask…and I'm pretty sure that Sirius gave me the true answer."

"What did you ask? And what did he say." James asked, a bit of intrigue momentarily blocking out the trepidation.

By this time, it was probably safe to say that the two Head students had pretty much abandoned the patrol they were supposed to be on as they were still on the seventh floor and no longer in motion. Although, they had managed to get halfway to the opposite side of the castle from the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room.

"I just wanted to know why you've been acting the way you have this year." Lily said. "And Sirius…he said that you really want me to hate you; that's why you kept asking me if I did."

James' eyes widened, most likely in disbelief that Sirius had quite possibly broken the Marauder's code after six years. James wouldn't be certain, however, until he consulted his copy of the code, which was currently sitting at the bottom of his trunk in Gryffindor Tower. Also currently, however, Lily was still standing in front of James and looking as if she expected him to respond in some way to what she was saying.

"Did he really?" James miraculously managed to say in a voice that wasn't a squeak.

"Yeah." Lily said, her brow furrowed as she processed James' reaction and how she should proceed with this conversation from there.

"You know, you really shouldn't believe—"

"I never hated you." Lily said suddenly, cutting James off.

"Erm…what?" James demanded, takenaback.

"I never really _hated_ you hated you." Lily attempted to clarify. "I mean, you definitely annoyed me per second more than everyone else on this planet in a year combined, but that was just frustrating. Hating you would be like…well…if we'd been friends and then you were a complete idiot and…pranked me in front of everyone. But we were never friends before and I never really knew you well, so I've decided it's too hard for me to called what I felt about you pure hatred."

"…Really?" James asked, curious, after a moment's hesitation, not having expected to ever hear any of what Lily had just said.

"Yeah, really." Lily replied, suddenly nervous. She paused again, calming herself with a deep breath before continuing. "And…I hope that doesn't mess up your plans."

"What plans?" James asked, confused now.

Lily just rose an eyebrow at him, somehow amused in her current nerve-wracked state, that he didn't appear to be connecting the dots in this conversation.

"I talked to Sirius yesterday." Lily reminded James. "And he pretty much told me everything—you really should talk to him about keeping secrets for his friends, though in this case it was most helpful."

James nodded, taking a second mental note to re-read his copy of the Marauder's Code after patrol. "But what else did he say that makes you think you're going to mess up some plans of mine?" He asked.

"He told me that you want me to hate you, because it's feeling some sort of emotion towards you." Lily said. "But as I've already said, I recently decided that I never hated you."

"Oh…" Was all James could say, a bit downcast. While he admittedly had rather recently abandoned his idea of getting Lily to love him by hating him first, he had rather been hoping it would work in at least a tiny way. Although, if he really took the time to think about it, it had worked, in a way. Lily never hating him was way closer to loving him than hating him forever was.

"And," Lily continued slowly, "I think you're plan has worked, in a way."

"It has?" James asked dubiously. "How so?"

"I think I'm falling in love with you."


	12. Chapter 12

**a/n-So, this is it: the last chapter. I hope you all like the chapter and that you liked the story as a whole. Enjoy!**

**Chapter Twelve**

James Potter had waited six years to hear those words come out of Lily Evans' mouth. And now that they were, he couldn't believe it.

"I…um…you what?" James stuttered.

"I just told you that I think I'm falling in love with you." Lily replied. "And that's your response?"

"Well…" James began slowly, "It's all a bit sudden."

A small smile crossed Lily's face at this. "Yeah, I suppose it is."

"And I really want to ask why you only _think_ you're falling in love with me, but I have a feeling that wouldn't be very endearing." James continued. "Also, I have a strange suspicion that I probably fell asleep in front of the fire while I was doing my homework, and I'm only dreaming that I'm here right now."

"Well, for starters, I suppose I only think I'm falling in love with you is because I've never been in love with anyone before, so how on earth am I supposed to know what it feels like? And you really aren't dreaming James. This is all quite real, and only semi un-endearing." Lily added with a slight grin. "That clear things up for you?"

"I…yeah, sure." James replied.

James Potter really was a rational person.

It didn't matter that even though he was now Head Boy he liked to pull the occasional prank on the general population of Hogwarts. It didn't matter that he was excelling in school but hardly doing any of his work. It didn't matter that his life pretty much revolved around Quidditch. It didn't matter that he had spent nearly six years of his life trying to get a certain red-haired girl to go out with him.

None of that mattered, because James Potter was very sensible, and he knew it. At least, that was what he discovered about himself at the end of his sixth year at Hogwarts, and how he finally figured out how to get that certain red-haired girl to actually like him at the beginning of his seventh year.

Now that James knew that Lily Evans finally did like him, there was only one course of action that he could follow. And what, might you ask, would that course of action be? Well, it's very simple, really. James chose to once again ask the girl he'd been in love with since he was eleven to go to Hogsmeade with him, which as you might recall was what he'd been trying to get her to do with him for a few years.

"I'd love to, James." Lily said with a smile when James asked her. Without a doubt, this was definitely the happiest day of James Potter's young life, or at least it was until Lily spoke again. "But I can't."

James' eyes widened in shock. Had he not just discovered that Lily Evans didn't hate him and never had, but in fact, she was most likely falling in love with him? Was he perhaps turning into Professor Binns, who was so old and so deaf he never heard pretty much his entire class either snoring or talking through his entire lecture?

"Why not?" James asked, genuinely confused.

"Well, we're the Head students…" Lily trailed off slowly, as if she expected James to understand her meaning perfectly. Which, unfortunately for him, he did not.

"Do you think us dating would be bad, then?" James questioned. "Because, personally, I think it would be a better image for the school than, say, how we were together two years ago."

"I don't think it would be bad at all." Lily replied takenaback at his question. "I do know about the school-wide betting pool, you know. I'm sure the two of us finally dating would make more than a few people very happy."

"Then why won't you go to Hogsmeade with me?" James wanted to know.

"I didn't say I wouldn't." Lily replied, looking amused. "I said I can't."

"Because…"

"You know, you're really starting to remind me of Sirius." Lily commented with a slight grin. "That can't be healthy for you."

James just gave her an impatient look and she had to try very hard not to laugh at his expression.

"James, we're the Head students." Lily repeated. "And it's still fairly early in the school year. We haven't set the dates to go to Hogsmeade yet. I can't go with you, because so far, we don't have any days scheduled to go."

"Oh…" James mouthed slowly, realization dawning on him. "That makes sense."

A small giggle escaped Lily's lips as her grin widened. "You were really worried there for a second, weren't you?"

"Me, worried? Of course not." James said with a wave of his hand.

"Of course." Lily repeated.

"So, Ms. Evans," James began now, "I hear you're the Head Girl here at Hogwarts?"

Lily simply rose an eyebrow at his antics. "Yes, I am."

"Well, as it turns out I'm the Head Boy here."

"You don't say."

"Oh it's true. And lately I've been getting some complaints from some of the younger students about there not being a schedule for visiting Hogsmeade yet."

"Have you really?" Lily asked, amused.

"Oh, of course." James replied.

"Well, it seems like it's going to be a quiet night, tonight." Lily said. "I say we work out that schedule right now. For the sake of the younger students, of course."

"Anything for them." James stated, holding his hand out to Lily.

And as she took it, James decided that he really was glad that he'd had nothing better to do one night last spring than listen to his two friends talk about hating quidditch. Because now he realized that there really was a distinction between hatred and indifference and that distinction made all the difference in the world.

Of course, there's also a distinction between whether or not a person actually hates you, but James doesn't really like to mention that part.


End file.
